NET Gadgeteer is a platform for creating your own electronic devices using a wide variety of hardware modules and a powerful programming environment. Students with little or no electronics background can design and build devices that sense and react to their environments using components such as switches, displays, buzzers, sensors and more. Using cables these various modules are plugged into a mainboard which is programmed to make everything work together. Devices can be programmed using Visual Basic or Visual C#.

How to learn .NET Gadgeteer

.NET Gadgeteer can be incorporated into the teaching of programming at GCSE and A-Level, or introduced in extra-curricular clubs at KS3. Teaching materials for .NET Gadgeteer are available at http://www.gadgeteering.net

These are structured around key programming principles including selection, iteration, arrays and file handling, so that students can learn all the key concepts they need whilst having fun!

What to buy

.NET Gadgeteer is open source hardware that is available from a number of manufacturers. For our Visual Basic teaching materials one suggestion is to buy a Fez Hydra kit, and also a small display, SD Card module and button. However other mainboards can be used just as well. Gadgeteer components are available from the following manufacturers/suppliers: GHI Electronics, Love Electronics, SyTech, Proto-Pic, Cool Components and Mouser Electronics, amongst others. Students can work in groups of four to build a Gadgeteer project.

How students benefit

.NET Gadgeteer is a motivating environment for teaching programming and is ideal for collaborative projects, where students share out tasks and work together to build a device of their own invention. Crucially, it also gives them a better understanding of how the devices and technology all around them work, as well as the skills to create their own.

NET Gadgeteer can offer exciting possibilities for teaching computer programming, electronics and computer-aided design. Once the device is built and programmed, a housing can be built for the device to enable ease of use, which also helps students to learn about human-computer interaction.

This week I had a interesting email from an academic interested in exploring F# for functional programming. F# for those who aren't aware has a number of opportunities in academic teaching, learning and research including analytical programming the sort that are encountered in finance and data science.

Microsoft Research have recently announced a web based IDE entitled Try F#. Try F# is much more than a set of tutorials its actually a web based IDE which lets users write code in the browser and share it with others on the web to help grow a community of F# developers.

Very similar to Microsoft Touchdevelop at www.touchdevelop.com this latest release of Try F# is an evolution that keeps the tool in synch with the new experiences and information-rich programming features that are available in F# 3.0, the latest version of the language. The tutorials incorporate many domains, and help users understand F#’s new powerful “type providers” for data and service programming in the browser-based experience.

Why F# in Education

Simple Code for Complex Problems - F# is expressive and concise, which allows developers to implement their algorithms more directly. This means less code to read and maintain.

Rapid Prototyping- Using F# Interactive, code can be executed immediately without first compiling, which enables fluid problem exploration. Developers can use F# Interactive to iteratively refine algorithms to production quality.

Fewer Bugs- Case studies and user reports consistently show that F#'s strong type system reduces software bugs. Units of Measure further increase these benefits by preventing code from accidentally combining such elements as inches and centimeters, dollars and euros, or any custom units.

Seamless Interoperability - F# interoperates seamlessly with C#, and F# can be used with HTML5, JavaScript and other web standards. F# type providers can be used to integrate data sources and thousands of statistical libraries from packages such as R. The NuGet package environment provides over 8,000 new packages. Enterprises can use F# effectively without having to use different libraries and frameworks, and can leverage their existing assets and domain knowledge.

Efficient Execution- F# features modern, high-performance just-in-time (JIT) compilation to native code. F# code runs unchanged on both 32-bit and 64-bit systems by using the instructions available on the target architecture. The resulting code runs at the speeds much faster than languages such as Python, JavaScript or R, and in some cases significantly faster than C#.

You are playing as a bear that falls down from the sky, collecting buttons, avoiding obstacles and fighting monsters.

This project demonstrates the capabilities of Windows Store hybrid applications, leveraging both the power of DirectX and XAML. It also supports an extensible level model, where developers can adjust the character behavior and the item sets by modifying specially designed XML files.

The educators who are all part of the Microsoft Partners in Learning Network recently took part in 3 Virtual Universities course based around the TouchDevelop platform and had to submit a mock-up of a TouchDevelop App.

21 outstanding Educators will now participate in the Partners in Learning Appathon taking place in London on January 28th and 29th, 2013.

The Apps are based on TouchDevelop so will support Windows 8 as well as Windows Phone. After an extensive review process, we selected 21 educators to Microsoft London Office on January 28th and 29th, 2013 (as part of the BETT Show). The purpose of the Appathon is for the academics to build their app further with the help of experts who will be there to support the group. The selection was based on the innovation of the idea and the feasibility of the idea coming to life.

Following the 24 hours, each educator will be expected to present their app on January 29th. I am thrilled to be part of the final Judging/evaluation committee and via a voting process we will select the winner.

A huge congratulation to all the UK Academics who are taking part in the Partners in Learning network and we appreciate the time you took to participate in the Virtual Universities, complete homework and submit mock ups. We admire your initiative, drive and are excited to be a part of your journey in creating an environment of innovation in education using information and communications technology.

Can’t wait to see the lucky 21 in London at the finals!

Interested in learning more about TouchDevelop

You can play directly with TouchDevelop on your Windows Phone FREE APP or more appealing to schools you simply go to www.touchdevelop.com and run the IDE in the browser you can also build Windows 8 Store app from TouchDevelop on any platform.

We have a some really inspirational educators in the UK using TouchDevelop in the curricula and for after school clubs. With the release of a browser version of TouchDevelop we have lots of interest from schools as they can effectively use any device with a web browser. So Windows Surface, iPads and Andriod devices are all fully supported.

Near Field Communication (NFC) is an emerging short-range radio technology that is poised to revolutionise how we use mobile phones in everyday interactions.

Nokia are hosting a great webinar. Where they will introduce the basics of NFC and how the technology is implemented in Nokia Lumia phones.

They will also demonstrate how you can use NFC via Microsoft Windows Phone 8’s Proximity API in your applications to share content, read data from and write data to NFC tags, and create your own application launch tags.

You will need to install the Microsoft Windows Phone SDK 8.0 in advance to get the most out of this training lab. You’ll learn more if you have the SDK installed and can begin using the API as soon as you complete the training. Also, it will be helpful to have a Nokia Lumia phone built on Windows Phone 8 available for testing.

Lumia App Lab: Develop NFC apps in Windows Phone 8

Wednesday, January 30, 2013 8:00:00 AM GMT - 8:45:00 AM GMT

Learn about NFC technology and how to use Microsoft Windows Phone 8’s Proximity API in your apps for Nokia Lumia phones to share content, read data from and write data to NFC tags, and create your own application launch tags.

Learn about NFC technology and how to use Microsoft Windows Phone 8’s Proximity API in your apps for Nokia Lumia phones to share content, read data from and write data to NFC tags, and create your own application launch tags.

Rapid2d.com C++/DirectX 11.1 Game Engine launches an awesome competition for students, startups and indie developers with a grand prize of £10,000

But that’s not all; there will also be runners up prizes of Xbox 360 consoles and bundles taking the total prize fund way beyond £10,000

Rapid2D, the Game Engine launched at the Evolve Conference, designed specifically for developing on Windows 8, has teamed up with industry sponsor Microsoft Corp. to launch an app competition with a first prize of £10,000.

Aimed at start-ups and student studios, while being open to anyone to enter, teams will be required to submit apps to the Windows Store. The judging will be based on overall app quality submitted by a studio/team.

Myra Smallman, of Rapid2D, also announced, “To create a level playing field for those who are just starting out in the industry, Rapid2D has produced a range of templates for use with our exciting new engine, all available for free to competition entrants.”

Anand Krishnan, Senior Director, Developer and Platform Group, Microsoft UK, added, “We are proud to support and sponsor this amazing initiative. It offers opportunities for hobby builders, students and startups to bring their ideas to life. We are excited to see what the next generation of developers, designers, artists and coders can do with the Rapid2D game engine.”

The competition will launch at 15.00pm (UK) on Wednesday 23rd January 2013 via the Rapid2D web site. The first of the 10 templates will also be made available at the same time as will the latest version of the Rapid2D engine, Rapid2D V1.2.

Registration via the Rapid2D website also opens 23rd January. The closing date for the collections of apps being published is 2nd April 2013. All Apps which are to be considered for the competition must be submitted to the Windows Store for approval by 12 midnight on 2nd April 2013.

It is not a prerequisite of entry to use the Rapid2D engine – entrants can develop a Windows 8 game with any language or middleware platform, whilst we recommend the Rapid 2D engine to utilize the templates and accelerate the game app development. Individuals can enter, but obviously teams can share the demanding workload Full terms and conditions available via www.rapid2d.com however entry is restricted to the UK.

This is an optional update that adds two new Windows Phone 7.8 emulator images to your existing SDK installation. The emulator will allow you to fully test how your Windows Phone app’s Live Tiles will look and behave when they are run on a device running Windows Phone 7.8.

If you’re running a Windows Phone SDK 7.1 installation, the update will also download and install the Windows Phone SDK 7.1.1 update onto your machine as part of the update (again, only applicable to Windows Phone SDK 7.1 installations)

Most importantly, any Windows Phone apps that you build using the Windows Phone 7.8 SDK still target and run on Windows Phone 7.5. This update simply makes it easier to test how your apps appear on devices running Windows Phone 7.8.

Live Tile options when running on Windows Phone 7.8

At a high level, Windows Phone 7.8 allows you to have your 7.5 apps behave much like apps do on Windows Phone 8 devices, allowing you to do the following on a user’s start screen:

Your app’s primary tile can have a customized small tile, support wide tiles, and also take advantage of the Flip tile template.

Secondary tiles can be enabled to take advantage of all three of the new tile templates (Flip, Iconic, and Cycle).

Taking advantage of the new tile options available in Windows Phone 7.8 uses the same reflectionapproach that folks have been using over the past few months light up their 7.5 apps on Windows Phone 8 (refer to the ‘lighting up’ your tiles on Windows Phone 8.0topic on the Windows Phone Dev Center for details).

Additional links for more information

The SDK update requires an existing installation of the Windows Phone SDK:

dev.windows.com should be your first stop for downloads, support, samples, design resources and more. The links on this page are some that I've pulled out that will be of use to web developers looking to start developing native apps for Windows 8 using HTML, CSS and JavaScript. This list is correct for the week of 15 Jan 2013 and is intended as a quick set-up guide for attendees of the 2013 New Adventures conference. Please make sure to check dev.windows.com for up to date links in future.

There's a new set of resources that have been produced with designers and User Experience professionals in mind. Again, keep checking back to the main design portal at design.windows.com for the most up to date information.

The applications, which were submitted by academic supervisors and are often co-authored by Microsoft Research Cambridge researchers, are currently being reviewed by Microsoft internal and external reviewers and announcements will be made in Feb 2013.

Students will then be appointed and start pursuing their research in the 2013–14 academic year.